Bodyguard Mercs need a slight buff.

[midnyt]

BIG UPDATE!

 

LADIES & GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE BEEN HEARD!

 

http://www.swtor.com/blog/community-qa-feb-17th-2012

 

We plan on improving the overall Area of Effect healing performance of the Mercenary/Commando in the next major Game Update (1.2) by increasing the number of targets affected by Kolto Missile/Kolto Bomb.

 

At least one of our issues has been heard and will be dealt with, although sadly our burst healing was nerfed slightly due to the recent surge nerf.

 

Congratulations Mercs!

 

Does anyone agree with me that we need a small buff to Bodyguard healing? Most of our heals have good burst if we have enough Crit and Surge but our only AoE ability ends up being used just for the healing increase buff (if you even spec it). Also, our only non-personal shield ability is too weak to have any useful effect. The Devs should change those 2 spells because at the moment they are effectively useless.

 

1a) Increase Kolto Missile healing done by 10-20% and max number of targets to 4 or 5.

 

1b) Add a Smart Healing mechanic to Kolto Missile.

 

2) Increase Kolto Residue effect from 5% to 10%.

 

3) Increase healing done by Kolto Shell by 50-70%.

 

What do you guys think?

 

If you have any full Columi geared healer Sorcs and Mercs in your group/guild please try to get a rough Heals Per Second and Healing Done computations for each of their AoE abilities (Revivification (?) and Kolto Missile) for a span of 30 or 60 seconds (or both).

 

In my tests with the Sorc healer I usually heal our guild Op runs with (these are 30 second tests)

 

Revivification -

400-700 heals per second for 10 seconds to up to 8 targets with 15 second CD

 

Kolto Missile -

1500-2500 heals to up to 3 targets every 6 seconds

 

That leads to a potential...

 

Healing Per Second of (if max targets are always hit):

 

Revivification - 5600 HPS

 

Kolto Missile - 1250 HPS

 

Healing Done of (if max targets are always hit):

 

Revivification - 112,000 Healing Done

 

Kolto Missile - 37,500 Healing Done

 

Please let me know if my computations are off so I can fix it. And please post your own results. TIA.

 

But that is where there is an issue; the difference in burst/single-target healing between a Sorc and a Merc is miniscule compared to the difference in AoE/multi-target healing.

 

I'll be testing and posting some burst healing numbers to better show the difference Sorc and Merc healing.

Edited February 18, 2012 by midnyt

[jHydz]

Make unload a healing spell .

Kolto missile hit 4 - 5 ppl and maybe lands a hot on the targets

[SerpanM]

We really need something to help out. My friend plays a Sorc and he switched over to healaing for a run and he had 2 or 3 more heals than I do. During Hard Modes I feel like all I do is spam Rapid Scan while Healing Scan and the instant heal are on cooldown. Then in no time during a big mob pull my heat is to high and I have to pop Vent Heat. Frankly I find it a little annoying that almost all of my heals in PvP take so long to cast most of the time they get interrupted.

[DomingoDarkrage]

I disagree for the most part, I find bodyguard healing to be just fine. The AE from Kolto missile is a bit weak, and only hitting 3 people is not ideal. However, the residue left behind plus the 10% absoption of damage for 15 seconds when using Supercharge makes kolto very valuable.

 

If anything, kolto missile could be worked to hit 4 people, a full party. For an instant cast ability, on a fairly fast cooldown, it does not need to hit everyone. especially for 16 heat, when the sorcs AE costs a lot of power + cast time.

 

Kolto shield can crit.

[_droider_]

Frankly I find it a little annoying that almost all of my heals in PvP take so long to cast most of the time they get interrupted.

 

Alacrity helps that a lot. Anyway, I'm a fairly fresh 50 but I got lucky on champ tokens so my gear is decent...from memory...1200 aim, 32 crit, 60ish surge, crit/surge relic, 9-10ish alacrity. I ran Ilum HM with some guilders mostly in columni/rakata and I barely kept them alive during Krel Trak fight...we wiped once. Yes I know that boss is hard as ****, but with decked out tank and dps, it shouldn't have been near wipe. I was doing nothing but button mashing the whole fight.

 

I know I'm using an extreme case there, but I'm trying to point out the fundamental flaw of BG...the rotations either afford you quick burst with heat issues or steady low healing over time. Unfortunately, most worthwhile boss fights need something in between. I know it'll get better when my crit and surge get better but still...

[Faloma]

I dont have much experience with healing mostly just do it on the easier HM FP. But one thing I hated about it was how many times I had to hit the key "1". That was were I have rapid shots.

 

I would love there to be an auto rapid shots or if it was a channel ability. Something so I didn't have to click so much.

 

That being said I love how if managed right a Bodyguard will never go OOM err force-power. In long fight I always see healing tail off by Sorcs because resource issues you just don't have that with BH.

[MasterBlasterO]

We need a healing tracer missile!

[_droider_]

That being said I love how if managed right a Bodyguard will never go OOM err force-power. In long fight I always see healing tail off by Sorcs because resource issues you just don't have that with BH.

 

I thought it was the other way around. If I'm in a serious boss fight in a HM FP, if it takes longer than a couple minutes, I'm in trouble. There's times where you just don't have the luxury of tossing in rapid shots between each cast...which leads to heat issues very quickly if the pressure of the fight doesn't slow down. I know I underuse TSO, which is part of my problem, but it still doesn't change anything in the long term.

[Matic]

Kolto missile needs to hit more than 3 people.

 

shell needs to have a huge boost i definitely agree with that

[midnyt]

I disagree for the most part, I find bodyguard healing to be just fine. The AE from Kolto missile is a bit weak, and only hitting 3 people is not ideal. However, the residue left behind plus the 10% absoption of damage for 15 seconds when using Supercharge makes kolto very valuable.

 

If anything, kolto missile could be worked to hit 4 people, a full party. For an instant cast ability, on a fairly fast cooldown, it does not need to hit everyone. especially for 16 heat, when the sorcs AE costs a lot of power + cast time.

 

Kolto shield can crit.

 

Yes, generally speaking, bodyguard healing is fine especially when tank or burst healing. But, comparatively, it has a hard time keeping up with Sorc or Operative healing in terms of raid or AoE healing. I'm not hoping or asking for a super buff but a buff that would make our AoE healing useful and an increase to our effective tank/burst healing since that's primarily what we are easily capable of doing.

[midnyt]

Alacrity helps that a lot. Anyway, I'm a fairly fresh 50 but I got lucky on champ tokens so my gear is decent...from memory...1200 aim, 32 crit, 60ish surge, crit/surge relic, 9-10ish alacrity. I ran Ilum HM with some guilders mostly in columni/rakata and I barely kept them alive during Krel Trak fight...we wiped once. Yes I know that boss is hard as ****, but with decked out tank and dps, it shouldn't have been near wipe. I was doing nothing but button mashing the whole fight.

 

I know I'm using an extreme case there, but I'm trying to point out the fundamental flaw of BG...the rotations either afford you quick burst with heat issues or steady low healing over time. Unfortunately, most worthwhile boss fights need something in between. I know it'll get better when my crit and surge get better but still...

 

Krel Thak is easy if things are done right. His shield+probe ability needs to be interrupted or else you can't attack him (melee attacking him when his shield+probe are up will do no damage and almost kill anyone who isn't a tank). The tank needs to grab the adds right where the boss is so that the DPS can AoE down the adds and hit the boss at the same time. Only one person uses their 1min CD AoE ability per add phase so you'll have an AoE available for each phase.

[midnyt]

Kolto missile needs to hit more than 3 people.

 

shell needs to have a huge boost i definitely agree with that

 

Yes, they need to increase it to at least 4 people. 5 or 6 would be great but even 4 would be a good boost to our AoE healing.

[Kyleface]

Healing Rocket Punch IMO.

[Kyleface]

Yes, they need to increase it to at least 4 people. 5 or 6 would be great but even 4 would be a good boost to our AoE healing.

 

 

4 makes sense... it's a full group. I hate seeing one person stay lower than the others because missile doesn't hit them and they don't get the buff. QQ.

[staticcc]

Why just dont make mercs immortal give them 10 healing abi that heals for 20k each whit no heat cost and no cd?? Ohh every heal heals 10 targets whitin 300 yards..

Thats maybe not enough?

[midnyt]

If you have any full Columi geared healer Sorcs and Mercs in your group/guild please try to get a rough Heals Per Second and Healing Done computations for each of their AoE abilities (Revivification (?) and Kolto Missile) for a span of 30 or 60 seconds (or both).

 

In my tests with the Sorc healer I usually heal our guild Op runs with (these are 30 second tests)

 

Revivification -

400-700 heals per second for 10 seconds to up to 8 targets with 15 second CD

 

Kolto Missile -

1500-2500 heals to up to 3 targets every 6 seconds

 

That leads to a potential...

 

Healing Per Second of (if max targets are always hit):

 

Revivification - 5600 HPS

 

Kolto Missile - 1250 HPS

 

Healing Done of (if max targets are always hit):

 

Revivification - 112,000 Healing Done

 

Kolto Missile - 37,500 Healing Done

 

Please let me know if my computations are off so I can fix it. And please post your own results. TIA.

Edited February 7, 2012 by midnyt

[MasterBlasterO]

Healing Rocket Punch IMO.

 

hmm what about healing explosive dart? Shoot it at an ally and heals 4 total people for around 3-4k and just give our kolto missile a nice hot and hits 5 people.

[midnyt]

hmm what about healing explosive dart? Shoot it at an ally and heals 4 total people for around 3-4k and just give our kolto missile a nice hot and hits 5 people.

 

New abilities or ability mechanics take time to program. What we need is an adjustment to what our current abilities can do.

[DukSaber]

y'all must not have the 4-piece set bonus.

[midnyt]

y'all must not have the 4-piece set bonus.

 

I have the 4-piece bonus and it's a good improvement to our healing (if you are even a merc healer). But it also only lets us cast more healing spells within a set amount of time. That's not the issue here (you obviously didn't read the whole thread). The issue is that we are very ineffective AoE healers both generally and comparatively.

[DukSaber]

I have the 4-piece bonus and it's a good improvement to our healing (if you are even a merc healer). But it also only lets us cast more healing spells within a set amount of time. That's not the issue here (you obviously didn't read the whole thread). The issue is that we are very ineffective AoE healers both generally and comparatively.

 

Its our class,,and its intended. We are a tank healer. I really hate the omg we need the same aoe as a sorc. Its bs. Sorc cannot keep a tank up like we can. Its a fact, especially with the 4-piece. I pray they dont listen to all you people and buff kolto missle. Im sure they will give in like every other game does.

[Matic]

Its our class,,and its intended. We are a tank healer. I really hate the omg we need the same aoe as a sorc. Its bs. Sorc cannot keep a tank up like we can. Its a fact, especially with the 4-piece. I pray they dont listen to all you people and buff kolto missle. Im sure they will give in like every other game does.

 

some of us don't JUST raid. unless you instruct the other team I am fighting against in PVP to kill the tank first being a "tank healer" doesn't do **** for me.

[TempestasSilva]

Its our class,,and its intended. We are a tank healer. I really hate the omg we need the same aoe as a sorc. Its bs. Sorc cannot keep a tank up like we can. Its a fact, especially with the 4-piece. I pray they dont listen to all you people and buff kolto missle. Im sure they will give in like every other game does.

 

I get what you are saying, but its a bit skewed. If you compare Us to a Sorc, we are without a doubt a better single target healer. BUT, they are not terrible single target healers, while we are terrible AOE healers. And they have WAY more utility.

 

I am not saying we are in a bad place, just that there is a HUGE discrepancy that needs to be looked at. Same with IA/Smug healers.

 

I'd like to see KM hit at least 4 people or 3 with a "smart component" where the people in range with the highest % health deficit get healed. I'd also like to see a brez and a utility buff.

Edited February 7, 2012 by TempestasSilva

[DukSaber]

some of us don't JUST raid. unless you instruct the other team I am fighting against in PVP to kill the tank first being a "tank healer" doesn't do **** for me.

 

 

So every class should be able to heal tanks and aoe the same no matter if its PVE or PVP? Really that something you want in the game? Really? Baddie.

[DukSaber]

I get what you are saying, but its a bit skewed. If you compare Us to a Sorc, we are without a doubt a better single target healer. BUT, they are not terrible single target healers, while we are terrible AOE healers. And they have WAY more utility.

 

I am not saying we are in a bad place, just that there is a HUGE discrepancy that needs to be looked at. Same with IA/Smug healers.

 

 

Not skewed. There isnt this huge discrpancy. I could dble the healing of any sorc on a tank. Im thinking alot of you are just turned 50 or something. Or just dont pve/ idk. Or maybe you dont have good tanks in your groups. Thats actually key for BH and your groups should understand this. The people that know are having fun healing anything in this game and not posting with you.